Ovid was the only person who knew of his history in this world. Even if his previous life, there was a scant few who were aware of his existence. He wasn’t even fully aware who he or his mother was… so how can he answer this question?

In fact, Anna was the only one who has seen a sliver of his true identity aside from the bigshots of the world. However, she was too unwilling, or perhaps even too afraid to think about it, and never mentioned it infront of Ovid.

Probably, only his mother truly understands how and why he had come to this world. But Ovid worshipped this woman like a idol.

Li Zhan saw these myriads of emotions flash through Ovid’s eyes, she took out a porcelain cup and began fondling it in a manner that resembled Cai Hua. “As I have said, you don’t have to answer it. But even the best doctor cannot treat a patient without knowing it’s symptoms.”

Ovid raised his head and declared, “I… shouldn’t be sick in the first place.”

Li Zhan smiled and said, “A person may not be ill, but others will believe that person is nevertheless. In the case that the world representative’s come looking for you, you need to be able to flee from them.”

“While your current state is half-saint, your ability prowess is at the most initial priest. If you are lucky, you could kill a saint, but if you are unlucky, even an ordinary priest could end your life.”

Li Zhan seems to possess a gentle demeanour, but her words were all straight and blunt. It hurts even more since her words contained not a single hint of falsehood, even the deadpan Ovid felt a little abused from these words.

Luckily, Ovid’s luck in this world has been good, perfectly good.

“Cai Hua is inexperienced as a teacher, he had not even thought you the foundations but had gone straight to the complete mastery of the sword, it’s fortunately that your comprehension is good, or else your heart would be infected with demons by now.”

Li Zhan passed Ovid a cup of black tea. “Compared to Cai Hua, I have given a few seminars.”

The basics Li Zhan describes is not how to achieve preception, or how the various schools for manipulating mana differs. But rather, the very fundaments of reality, how the world functions. By understanding that, one would gain insight into the world. With insight, one can partially gain control over the world.

“Us humans combine spiritual essence or mana as the southerners call it, with the physical body. Take the manual Anna is practising, for example, the ‘Five Flames Script’ which was created by Julia. Just learning the physical movement on the pictures if far from sufficient, the spiritual essence needs to be infused within the air, the body and the world itself for the technique to show it’s full power.”

A good student not only listens but injects his own thought within the lecture. Ovid asked, “Is this why I couldn’t achieve deaconhood? Because I cannot infuse mana within my body?”

Li Zhan laid down on a chair and adjusted her dress. She nodded.

Anna’s minor world had ample sunshine, but Li Zhan’s room felt as cold as the frigid south.

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“From the very beginning, you contain a frightening amount of spiritual essence, the issue is that your soul, which is the component used to perceive and manipulate spiritual essence, never matched with the body.”

Li Zhan narrowed her eyes, taking a sip of the black tea as she glared at Ovid’s chest. She said, “The biggest problem arose from your heart… the original Ovid’s heart. I don’t know where it came from, but it’s completely translucent, and can cooperate with any energy in this world. That was why Julia had placed that silver pearl within your body - because it’s the only one that can accept it. The issue is that your spiritual essence does not come from this world.”

“Combined with your soul, which resides within the heart, your body could only be described as two powerful forces fighting itself. But after you overwhelmed your inner organs with spiritual essence when facing Glafx, one force finally won.”

“To put it a simple way, before you learned Glafx’s technique, you were a square peg in a circle hole. Now the square has forced the circle to become a square.”

The problem of being unable to progress beyond preception had plagued Ovid for a long time when he had started his path toward eternity. At that time, Cai Hua had determined Ovid’s body had some form of issues stemming from his body.

It was not because Li Zhan was a far better cultivator that she figured out Ovid’s problem so quickly - the reason was the same as to how she determined Ovid came from another world. Now that he had become a half saint, mana flowed through his body and veins, allowing her to see Ovid’s condition more clearly.

Li Zhan realised she had swayed far away from the topic, she once more continued, “The natural world is omnipresent and omnipotent. Cultivators like you and I can only borrow its spiritual essence before sainthood. Hence, the laws of the world always apply to the world as fundamentals, to seek to free yourself from it is to break the fabric of the world itself.”

“The goal of cultivation is to break free the restraints of the rules the world placed on its inhabitants. Whether it be to break the shackles of mortality or to reach the truth of the world, it is all to disobey the natural order of things.”

Ovid thought of how Sage Glafx had come up with a solution to this problem; to create an entirely new world. He grew cold, wondering what horrifying degree of understanding and madness the sage must have possessed to conjure such an ambitious and cold-blooded plan.

Ovid said, “Haven’t the gods who had ascended create their own world within themselves?

“Even those who ascended and became gods cannot do it, the only choice they have is to leave the world altogether. Even millions of years after the first use of spiritual essence no once figured how to overcome the rules of the world.”

The room was cold because the world is cold. Countless figures, perhaps with talent ten times greater than Alexander had risen and ascended over the eons the world had existed for, yet in the end, all it resulted in was a banishment into space.

Ovid suddenly said, “Is this why Julia never ascended after so many years?”

Li Zhan nodded, pleasant that Ovid had come to such a conclusion. “Not only Julia, my father, and at least two other people are in this state. Actually, with respect to power, there isn’t that much of a difference between immortals and gods, only in their comprehension of the world.”

Ovid asked, “But being able to create your own world and rules is still quite good. How did they resist the temptation?”

Li Zhan signed, looking up at the blue sky of Anna’s minor realm, she said, “They didn’t. There are more than a dozen gods and only four who lingered here, and they had only done so because they are fearful and cautious people. They are fearful of this temptation.”

“The gap between the peak of sainthood and godhood is wider than all the previous four state combined. Yet once they grasped the ability to create their world, they would crave more and more. But these people believe their talents can carry them so far, and it’s impossible to ever reach a sufficient level.”

Li Zhan shook her head very slowly and said, “Those people who ascended to godhood, these impressive character such as Alexander, are crazy perverts who’s ego is far too great for anyone to comprehend.”

Ovid looked down at the still surface of the cup of his hand. He rubbed the fine porcelain and asked, “Is there anyone capable of coming truly independent from the world?”

Li Zhan did not reply, she instead asked, “Is there anyone capable of breaking the rules of nature?”

Ovid placed down the cup and stared at his reflection. He said, “I don’t know.”

Li Zhan said, “If you had asked me this a month ago, I would have answered the same as you had. But today, I have a different answer.”

“There is.”

Chen Changsheng was shocked speechless.

But before he could recover from this stupor, Li Zhan spoke once but more.

“But it’s not you.”

The room was quiet.

The light from outside shore temperately, but it was so harsh.

For a long time, Ovid said nothing.

After this seemingly endless silence, he asked Li Zhan, “But… she’s related to me, isn’t she.”

This time, Li Zhan became silent.

After another endless silence, she answered, “I cannot determine the goal of this outsider.”